The community garden at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Sedona was begun as a small “Three Sisters Garden” in 2009. Gardens for Humanity met with a group of parishioners at the end of summer with the goal of starting the garden project on Sedona “Mitzvah (Good Deed) Day, “ an afternoon of community service to be held November 15. St. John Vianney was known for some beautiful floral gardens, but they wanted to start a vegetable garden.
On Mitzvah Day over thirty volunteers from the community divided into five teams, made a pathway to the garden site, laid water pipe, hauled fill dirt, created a garden border with stones and layered the dirt with leaves to create a “lasagna” bed that would overwinter to create soil for late spring planting.
From this beginning the garden was fenced, the bed turned and on the following April 24 the garden dedicated with a blessing by Fr. JC and a reading of the words of St. Francis. Each season since the “Three Sisters” (Corn, squash, beans) were planted the garden expanded and grew with new fence, beds and many gardeners. There are now more than twenty garden plots in the garden and four composting bins. This garden is a learning garden for many and has become an integral part of the St. John Vianney community.
Find and choose a program you like, and help to expand and flourish it.
Gardens for Humanity acknowledges that we work and gather upon the ancestral homeland of the Yavapai-Apache Nation. We honor, with gratitude, the land itself and the Yavapai and Apache people who have lived here for millennia and who remain a vital part of this community today.